Category Archives: Construction

Starting a demolition company

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Most of the construction and renovation companies do not do all the work on their own. They rather prefer to give few jobs to other contractors. It is also not possible for a mid-size construction company to manage all the work on their own. They may not have the required heavy equipment at their disposal and they will not want to buy machines just to get one particular work done. It is therefore that they prefer to invite contractors who can do that set of work for them and pay them good price for the job. In a construction site, one of the most important jobs is to demolish existing structures and that part of the work requires good number of heavy equipment. Now a construction company can’t afford to buy every kind of heavy equipment that is required for the demolition purpose and this is why they let out that work to demolition companies.

It makes ample sense to start a demolition company where you need to possess some heavy equipment that is predominantly used for demolition jobs. There are many such demolition companies that are making good chunk of money doing this work. There are of course few challenges that one has to go through during the initial phase but once the business kick starts, rest all falls in place.

We will be discussing on few reasons why one would want to start a demolition company.

Less investment:-

To start any type of company, the first thing that you need to crack your brains for is to arrange capital. No company can be started without required amount of financial inflows in it. This is probably the only form of business where the amount of capital that you need is less and still you can manage to get business from people. All you need is few competent men who know their job, an office space from where you can operate your business and some heavy equipment that are used for demolition works. Once you possess these 3 thing, all you have to do is hunt for work. Meet as many construction companies as you can and tell them all about the existence of your company and the experience you own. They will for sure give your business if you are a bit old in this profession. So ultimately you can form a demolition company with absolutely very less capital.

No need of sharp technical know-how:-

To start a demolition company, you need not have sharp technical know-how. All you need to know is how to do business. Having said this, you definitely need to have some basic information about heavy equipment and stuff or else people might take you for a ride. It is just that in order to start a demolition company, you need not have a college degree or need to do some hardcore studies. You only need to know your stuffs well. If you have some experience by working in a demolition company, it will always work as an advantage for you.

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When you are a part of the construction industry always have a role model

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When life gets tougher you seek for an inspiration and in case you have a role model in life it becomes easy for you to come out of that difficult situation and face the challenge with open heart. When you are part of the construction industry, you will time and again come across situations that you will find to be quite challenging and there will be numerous occasions when you will feel like giving it up. In situations like these, it is important that you seek help of the person whom you believe to be your role model. A role model can be a person either living or dead and therefore you may not necessarily get to speak to him in time of distress. But you can certainly read up his works and get inspired to know what sort of challenges he has faced during his times which may be tougher than yours and perhaps then you will get some courage to deal with things.

Female works can be exceptional role models as they have to go through a lot than men do. They have a family to take care of and they can’t shrug off their responsibility by saying that they have too much of work in office. So women who have successfully managed to tackle both the fronts have turned out to be better role models and the world look at them with respect and honor.

If the role model is in your reach, it benefits you more than anything else can. Ideally, we have role models who are well established and it may not be easy to reach to them every time we need their help. However, if you idolize a person for his hard work and the person work right in your office then it becomes simple to approach him anytime when you feel like talking to him. For most people, their parents are their role models and if your father or mother is from this industry then you always have them for a short discussion. You can sit with them and talk about the issues you are experiencing and they will show you some way that might be the best for you. You will never find yourself short of good people around you. It is just you got to be equally good to everybody around you.

There are few people who adore men belonging to an industry different from the construction. You need not have your role model from the area of your business but can have from any profession and from any walk of life. Every person has a story that can inspire you and the guy from the construction industry frequently find the needs of such stories as they are often haunted by difficult times. It is these stories and the lives of such people that help them in rough times and show them the way to get over it.

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Make use of right platforms to rent your heavy equipment

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When you are dealing with highly priced items, it is very important that you follow the right platforms to deal with them or else it may lead to various sorts of complications in the future. It may also lead to losing the heavy equipment forever. In order to avoid any confusions or hindrances, it is crucial that you follow the right platforms and you will find things going your way. Construction equipment is quite expensive. You buy a machine for thousands of dollars and put it to use for few years. After which you feel the need to upgrade your arsenal and have to do away with the old machine. However, if you are not a filthy rich guy, it will definitely pinch you hard to just let go the old metal. If possible you may want to retain the machine but if you do not see any use of it, then there is absolutely no point in keeping the junk with you.

In such a situation it is prudent that you let-out the machine to another user and collect monthly rent from him. In this way, you still possess the equipment and also have put it to use and simultaneously getting good money as rent. Now, when you talk about renting the machine, it is quite imperative that you follow few parameters that will let you rent the equipment without any risk of losing it. Following few essential parameters means that you rent the machine through proper channels and by following right set of rules.

First and foremost you should be checking the right channel through you can search takers who would be willing to take your machine on rent. You can depend on newspaper classifieds or websites that exclusively deals with heavy equipment. Most of the websites that deals with purchase and sale of heavy equipment also works in the sphere of renting them. You have to classify one such website that is pretty famous within the masses. By posting the heavy equipment in that website will increase its viewership. People from across the country will get access to check the ad and anybody is interested will get in touch with you. You can then decide if you want to ship it to a different city or want to give to someone who is from your city.

You may charge the shipping cost from the taker but that has to be informed to him in advance. One more thing that is more important that discussing the shipping cost is the rent amount and the period for which they are seeking to rent the machine. Also, you got to state them very clearly the duration at which they need to service the machine. If the machine will be used extensively then servicing the machine should be more frequent. Make sure that you prepare a proper rent agreement with the taker and mention all the valid points that you guys have agreed to in the agreement. Once the agreement is signed, you can ship the machine to the taker.

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Referring to excerpts of experts can be really helpful

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It is unlikely for an individual to know the depth of everything as he can master himself in one sphere if not more and therefore for things that he do not know, he needs to depend on others. It is quite obvious that we can’t perfect everything in our life span and when it comes to the construction domain, it becomes all the more difficult for a person to know all about this industry. It may take him years of his involvement in this industry and still he may find something new to learn in the following day. This can only suggest how wide this industry is and how much absorbed you have to be to become an expert in this kind of business.

It is not that this industry lacks experts. You will certainly come across people who possess good knowledge about the construction domain but they may not know much about the heavy equipment sector. They may be able to answer few generic questions about machines (some may even answer more than generic) but if you try to get into details, they may not be sure of their answers or opinions. A strategist in a construction company may not be able to speak a lot about the engineering part of the business and the operator will not have any idea how to handle the financial transactions. In such a scenario if one gets stuck at a point and needs some help, they have to approach the expert of that field.

Ask a person whom you can trust:-

It is crucial to have a mentor in this industry who can guide you in different stages of your career. It is not necessary that the mentor has to be an expert of his domain but he got to be someone whom you can trust. A person who will not misguide you ever and is also known for speaking things that make sense. If you know such a person, you can put your worries on his shoulders (not literally though) and pursue his guidance.

An experienced person can be real handy:-

If you get jammed with some issue and do not know how to get out of it, it is advisable that you speak to someone who has been in the line of business for many years. They have witnessed a lot of scenarios in their life and have defeated many troublesome situations. It becomes prudent to approach such an experienced person and knowing what you can do to get out of the trouble. In case, you get caught in some legal issues, there you take the advice of an expert attorney.

Become a member of the heavy equipment community:-

You can join a heavy equipment community and can read the post of expert writers, members who have been writing for years on subjects of your interest. If you need any help in particular, you can post your query and wait for someone to answer on it. These sites really work for people who are new to the construction domain and are looking for some help or expert opinions.

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Construction companies should be bilingual

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To know a language that is not your first language and able to speak, read and understand the language fluently is a great skill. Not many in the United States can speak more than one language. It is perhaps we are brought in a way where we have heard and taught only English. There are few institutions that teach languages spoken by people of other countries and it is always going to be beneficial for you if you are able to learn it well.

America is a country where people from various countries have come in and are living with a feeling of togetherness. They contribute big time to our society and also bring more businesses from their countries. In a situation like this, it will be handy if an American can speak their language. This will certainly impress the client and there will be not much gap in communicating with the counterpart.

Construction industry is one such industry where you got to deal with clients from several countries. You do not want to miss the opportunity of a business getting clicked just because you can’t communicate with the other person in their language. Remember not everybody around the world is fluent in English and they prefer talking to someone who knows their language.

The construction industry in US gets lot of investment deals from the Chinese and Japanese. You will not find many people from these two countries to speak in English. If you have a delegation of around 10 people, you will hardly find 2 who can fluently communicate in English. Rest will depend of those 2 guys who will later explain the conversation to them. This is perhaps not the way how businesses are conducted in a construction industry and therefore it is high time that the construction companies go bilingual.

Construction companies will not want the labor to be bilingual as they do not have the need to communicate with people from other nations. However, the guys in the Admin or at the reception should have a fair understanding on languages spoken in Europe. You should also hire guys who can speak the language of the country that your client belongs from. We have a lot of people in US who speaks Spanish and Chinese and there are also many offices who hires receptionist who can effectively communicate in these languages. This should be also followed by the construction companies. The marketing team should have people who can speak multiple languages at the same time. It is always a plus point to know as many languages as one can.

Few big construction companies have already gone bilingual. They have started to hire staff who can speak more than one language. They have realized the importance of being bilingual. Being able to speak the language of the client they already get half way through the deal. The rest they have to generate the confidence amongst the client that they have the ability to complete the work on time.

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Design Build Highway construction

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A country’s economy is largely dependent on the quality of highways it has. You need big roads for huge vehicles to move on and these huge vehicles carry tons of weight on it. This means that you need highways that are strong and long lasting. Now in order to have long lasting highways you need a solid design to go with so that the construction of the highway goes in accordance to the design being made by the engineers and it remain strong to cater to thousands of vehicles that passes each day. There is something known as “Design Build” which is majorly used in construction of roads and highways. Here the design of the highway and its construction are done by the same entity. This means that no 2 different entities will be in the picture and the entire responsibility of the highways construction remains with only one construction company who has taken the order to construct the highway.

Earlier there was something known as Design Bid and Build that was followed by construction companies. In this particular scenario, one entity used to prepare the design of the highway and the other followed the design and worked on it. This created lot of problems with who will take the accountability if something goes wrong in the making of the project. The company who designed the project will point fingers at the company who has taken the construction work and the later will do the same on the company who has designed the project. In this case, the ultimate sufferer is the common people, the taxpayer of the country who has paid for the project and what they got in return is something worthless. This is why the concept of “Design Build” came into existence where the sole responsibility of the project remains with one company and if anything goes wrong then we know who to catch hold of.

Reduces overall costs of the project:-

Since there is only one company involved with the design and construction of the highway, we can expect a sizeable amount of reduction in the overall cost to the project. The construction company can work on the design and if it finds any changes to be made which happens quite often in a project of this magnitude can have a talk with the guys who did the design work for them and get it redesigned to their convenience. Had there been 2 entities, the redesigning thing would have taken huge sum of money from the project and have also made the process quite time consuming. Moreover there are chances of ego clash happening and if that happens it becomes more difficult to complete the highway on time.

The designers and the contractors are in sync:-

The Design Build concept has brought in a greater sense of responsibility by generating strong team bonding between the designers and the contractors. Since they belong to the same entity they have to work in sync with each other and it has been seen that people who work in a team derives better result that guys who work alone.

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Do not misrepresent your listing on online portal

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Doing business is not the same as it was few decades ago. Then people had to put their stuffs in big stores for buyers to come and buy. It is no longer the same now. Today, we have websites that deals with buying and selling of every possible item that one can think of. You can even sell your dozer on one such website and still expect a good price from it. Selling of heavy equipment on such websites has become the trend now. There are plenty of people who are listing their heavy equipment on sites like eBay, Craigslist, Amazon etc. Each of these portals has their own way of listing items. They have formed certain rules that they want their members to follow and one such rule that is being followed quite stringently is to not misrepresent the listing on the website.

We will be discussing in length as to why almost all the online portals that deals with buying and selling of heavy equipments follows this rule so stringently.

Misrepresenting is equal to cheating the buyer:-

When you are misrepresenting your listing, it clearly indicates that you are not true with your listing and you keep the intention of cheating the buyer. Else you will not mention anything that is by any manner sounds to be untrue. Viewers while they checking out your listing, they keep some level of trust on the online portal as well. For instance, if you are checking out a crawler on Craigslist, back in your mind you have the belief that whatever is listed on Craigslist is genuine and the seller will not misrepresent the item there. So you go as per the description stated on the listing and if you like the product, you go for the sale. Now if Craigslist does not give much importance to the description part, sellers will get the freedom to write anything on the description and that will for sure lead to the debacle of the website. Buyers will undoubtedly feel cheated and will look for some other option.

Sellers will also lose their credibility:-

It is not just the portal that will lose its credibility but also the seller will affect his reliability. Buyers will find it hard to trust any seller. This is not in any manner a healthy sign for the online business. Sellers will be able to make few sales by misrepresenting the item but once the buyer finds out that he is cheated, he will definitely leave a poor feedback for the seller. This negative feedback will go completely against the seller and there is also a possibility that he will be expelled from listing any further items on the website. The website will not want people to list heavy equipment who falsify the description part and stern action can be taken against such members.

The online websites have given many of us a great opportunity to sell construction machines without any hassles. We should respect this opportunity and ensure that we list the machines giving most accurate description that we can.

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Blowing your own trumpet is essential in construction business

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In order to become a successful businessman, it is quite essential that people know about you and the business that you are into. Also it is important for others to know about the nature of your business. For instance, if you own a bar or a joint that provides nutritious food or anything that involves your dealings with the end user, it is important for you that others know you well and also that you have a good reputation in the market. So when people talk about you they talk mostly good. This is perhaps the most important ingredient that is required to sustain in the service industry. Construction business to a larger extent is connected to the end user and in order to grow the business in your area or in your city, it is quite instrumental that you blow your own trumpet so that people know about you and the kind of work that you are into. Your success in the business becomes your portfolio and so are the existing projects that you have under your belt.

When we talk about blowing your own trumpet we specifically mean that you market your business more aggressively than never before. Reach out to as many people as you can and talk to them about your success story. However, do not ever try to blow things out of proportion or you will get caught. You have to speak what is true. The only difference will be that you will be more vocal than before and mention about all the feathers on your cap to the person with whom you expect some business to come. If needed hire ace marketing guys who knows about the industry and let them do the talking business. You have to get the stuff ready for them so that they can do the talking and get business for you.

You can get guys who are simply exceptional when it comes to market things. They are basically freelancers who do not work on one particular company and can work for any company at a given point of time. All they need is some material and facts to speak on. So when you give them some solid facts and figures that your company has been able to achieve, it becomes simple for them to go and perform. Right from cold calling to fixing an appointment and then meeting the person and turning him into your client, they will get everything done for you. You probably have to go for final meetings as you are the face of the company and people will be ultimately dealing with you.

Social media is one more way to spread the word at a shorter time to a larger crowd. Many construction companies are using Facebook as a tool to promote their business. They also have accounts in other social media websites that are meant for professional use. Here they mention almost everything about their company, right from the inception to the values and the projects that they work on. Many have found them to be quite useful to promote their business and take it to the next level.

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Demolition Debris Cleanup

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Pulling down an existing structure leaves a lot of debris on the site and if not cleaned up in a day or two it will lead enormous problems to the construction workers to function. They will be unable to move along the debris and also it will become hard for them to breathe. It is therefore important to get the debris removed as soon as you can once the demolition is done. The next question is do you have the right sort of heavy equipment that is exclusively used for debris cleanup. In order to get the debris cleaned up real soon you need to have the heavy equipment that is meant for that purpose. You can also make use of an excavator or a dozer to do the work. It is just that you need to change the attachment on those machines and if you do not have the attachment then that is again a problem.

Normally, a construction company can easily arrange for attachments. The other option is you give the work to a contractor who has relevant heavy equipment and who exclusively does this sort of job. A construction work is done in several phases and for each phase you need help of different set of contractors. This is perhaps one of the reasons as to why a contractor is never out of job. He always gets something or the other to do irrespective of the season.

Be it summer, monsoon, spring or autumn you will never see a contractor idle. It is however the discretion of the construction company if they would want to hire a contractor to clean the debris or do they have the required heavy equipment and the operators who knows to do the work well. One more heavy equipment that plays a crucial role in cleaning up the demolition debris is the dumper. A dumper or a truck has the capability to pull loads of debris and tow them away from the jobsite.

Contractors who work as demolition debris cleanup do necessarily possess a dumper or a truck to do the job for them. It is kind of must heavy equipment without which they can’t see to complete the job. When we talk about demolition debris, the debris is not restricted to only dirt and mud. Most of the times the debris are heavy like concrete slab or the remains of the foundation removal. So before you chose a contractor to remove those heavy concrete slabs, it is important that you do some study on the contractor’s job background. For instance, how experience is the contractor in cleaning up demolition debris is the key point to look at. What kind of services they offer and also the reviews of their customers will act as a deciding factor if one should go with them or look for some other contractor.

Checking the type of heavy equipment used by the contractor is perhaps the second most important thing to do. You want the debris to be cleaned up in the shortest possible time and for that the contractor needs to put the best of heavy equipment to use. So be sharp while you choose any contractor for the demolition debris cleanup work.

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Building finances for your construction company. Does it take time?

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Construction is a multifaceted industry and a risky business. It requires huge financial investments, which get returned as profits much later. Thus, it is an expensive business which offers delayed benefits. The construction project cannot proceed without adequate finances. Hence, the owner of construction facilities must obtain reliable capital resources to finance costs of construction. The owner does not just work on one project but numerous projects which are all financed together. In addition, there are other problems such as budget overruns, unreliable contractors and delays. If the owner is unable to cover costs, the capital investors face financial problems.

However with a pragmatic approach, owner of construction industry can build finances (achieve profits) in less time. Some of the guidelines for the same are as follows:

  1. The owner should be aware of the amount of work to be undertaken. Further obtain knowledge of the technical skills required which will enable to calculate the correct cost of construction project. Thus he should define goals and set expectations. Emphasis have to be on long term planning. Setting expectations enhances confidence of both clients and employee’s in the owner.
  2. Generally it costs less during planning and designing of the project but involves substantial expenses during construction. Instead of giving importance to sales, and getting deals, owner should develop understanding of the financial aspects and costs involved in the construction project. They can also hire appropriate project managers and financial consultants to understand the actual costs incurred by a project.
  3. Estimate the true profit by considering overhead costs, risks and job costs.
  4. Managing the job production to achieve profits: the job should be done in the cost-effective manner to make profits. Changing daily orders of operation and determining the productivity of labour force. When the work to be completed in 2 days, takes 6 days, it incurs additional costs. Thus jobs should get delayed.
  5. Accounting for profit by employing a project manager who keeps track of the budget and purchase orders. He has accurate knowledge of the expenses since he is present on the site. He applies construction specific accounting knowledge.
  6.  Since education always helps, hence training to be given to labourers, employees and management professionals.
  7.  Emphasis on written procedures (SOP) is important. Procedures should change improve. They should be evaluated periodically.
  8.  Effective Good communication with employees is valuable and necessary. They result in strong relationships with all parties and frequently result in future referral business.

Overall building finance in construction industry takes time. Following the above guidelines will enable the owner to develop business skills to reap profits in less time and have sustainable career in construction industry.

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